--- title: "Anonymous Research University" url: https://www.truenas.com/case-studies/anonymous-research-university/ description: "At a leading research university, the pace of discovery depends on infrastructure that just works. For a senior systems administrator supporting research computing, that meant finding a storage solution built for long-term reliability, not long-term contracts.After more than a decade of use, TrueNAS has become one of the institution’s most resilient and cost-effective tools. It quietly powers scientific progress behind the scenes." breadcrumb: ["Home", "Case Studies", "Anonymous Research University"] date_published: 2026-07-08 date_modified: 2026-07-16 author: "Pee Jay Latombo" source: html generator: tn-md-extract/1 --- [Home](https://www.truenas.com) › [Case Studies](https://www.truenas.com/case-studies/) › **Anonymous Research University** [![truenas-community-edition Logo](https://www.truenas.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/truenas-enterprise-logo-logo-white-rgb-900px-w-72ppi-300x73.png "truenas-enterprise-logo-logo-white-rgb-900px-w-72ppi")](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-community-edition/) At a leading research university, the pace of discovery depends on infrastructure that just works. For a senior systems administrator supporting research computing, that meant finding a storage solution built for long-term reliability, not long-term contracts. After more than a decade of use, TrueNAS has become one of the institution’s most resilient and cost-effective tools. It quietly powers scientific progress behind the scenes. > “Once it’s set up, it just runs,” the administrator says. “That’s what we love about it.” ### Budget Constraints, Enterprise Needs As a public institution, the university’s storage strategy is shaped by grant cycles and one-time funding. Every purchase must stretch across years, without the burden of recurring license fees or costly support renewals. When the administrator joined the Research Computing Group, they were tasked with finding a solution that could handle backup systems, Linux-based NFS shares, and VM storage. Commercial options like [EMC Isilon and Dell VNX](https://www.truenas.com/dell-powerscale-isilon-alternative/) were feature-rich, but didn’t fit the funding model. That’s when the team turned to TrueNAS. ### An Open Platform That Just Works What started as an experiment became a foundation. The team began deploying TrueNAS on repurposed hardware, from legacy Mac Pro systems to decade-old enterprise servers. Despite the vintage gear, some systems exceeded 800 days of uptime. > “TrueNAS wasn’t just affordable, it was powerful and adaptable,” the administrator says. From [hypervisor storage](https://www.truenas.com/virtualization/) that enabled VM migration to resilient NFS exports for research teams, TrueNAS became a quiet workhorse across departments. ### Versatile Enough to Scale Without Complexity Today, the university operates between 12 and 16 TrueNAS systems across multiple data centers. Each serves a different function, yet they all share the same DNA: stable performance, simple operation, and complete control. With Nagios plugins and manually defined security rules, the team keeps everything monitored and compliant, even without third-party endpoint protection. When institution-wide IT security requirements shifted, the administrator worked closely with central IT to demonstrate that TrueNAS could meet modern compliance standards through segmentation and policy enforcement. > “We didn’t need vendor software to stay secure,” they explain. “We just needed visibility and control.” ### A Hidden Community, Revealed That security audit surfaced an unexpected insight. Other teams across the institution were also running TrueNAS. Independently, quietly, they had all reached the same conclusion. > “That was really reassuring,” the administrator says. “It told us we weren’t alone in this.” Now, the team is exploring opportunities to collaborate across departments, sharing best practices and potentially leveraging replication between systems to improve efficiency and redundancy. ### Advice for Higher Ed IT Teams Asked what they’d tell other universities, the administrator doesn’t hesitate. > “TrueNAS is easy to run, highly capable, and brings exceptional value. You can use old infrastructure or buy new. It’ll get the job done.” For this institution, it’s a solution that delivers dependable performance across workloads: backup, NFS, virtualization, and more—without adding layers of complexity or cost. ### Byte by Byte, It Just Keeps Going The team’s journey with TrueNAS isn’t flashy. It’s measured in uptime, simplicity, and shared confidence. In a university setting where long-term value matters more than vendor flash, TrueNAS stands out as a practical, proven choice. No black boxes. No forced refreshes. Just storage that works. That was really reassuring,” the administrator says. “It told us we weren’t alone in this. Case Study ## Anonymous Research University .pdf / 630 KB ### Frequently Asked Questions **Q**: **What did this research university replace with TrueNAS?** A: Commercial options like EMC Isilon and Dell VNX were feature-rich, but didn’t fit the funding model, so the university moved to TrueNAS for hypervisor storage, VM migration, and resilient NFS exports for research teams. **Q: What kinds of workloads does TrueNAS support at the university?** A: TrueNAS became a workhorse across departments — from hypervisor storage that enabled VM migration to resilient NFS exports for research teams. **Q: How many TrueNAS systems does this university run, and how reliable have they been?** A: The university operates between 12 and 16 TrueNAS systems across multiple data centers, including systems built on repurposed hardware — from legacy Mac Pros to decade-old enterprise servers — with some exceeding 800 days of uptime. 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